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Kosovo: Peacekeeping Operations

Answer

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO)'s budget for its activities in Kosovo comprises (a) operational costs for our embassy in Pristina and (b) discretionary programme funding. In addition, the Conflict Prevention Pool and Peacekeeping Budget (separate budgets owned jointly by the FCO, Ministry of Defence and Department for International Development (DFID), with decisions on spending taken tri-departmentally, irrespective of the implementing Department) fund a range of Kosovo related activity.Below is a breakdown for financial years (FY) 2008-09 and 2009-10:

	£
FY 2008-09
Embassy Operational Costs	704,319
FCO Discretionary Programme Funding	228,919
Tri-departmental Conflict Funding	26,600,000
FY 2009-10
Embassy Operational Costs	686,566
FCO Discretionary Programme Funding	168,500
Tri-departmental Conflict Funding	9,000,000

Activities funded by the tri-departmental conflict funding are:"(a) discretionary spending in support of military and civilian peacekeeping missions.""(b) conflict related programme expenditure."The reduction in conflict funding between FY 2008-09 and FY 2009-10 relates principally to the decision in March 2009 by the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) Supreme Allied Commander for Europe that the capacity provided by British troops to the NATO force in Kosovo (KFOR) could be reduced given the steady improvement of the security environment in Kosovo.In addition to these figures, the FCO—on behalf of the three departments—pays the UK's assessed contributions for the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Mission in Kosovo, the EU Rule of Law Mission in Kosovo (EULEX) and the UN Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK). We contribute 11.09 per cent. of the OSCE overall budget for field missions, equating to €3,333,687 in 2008 and €2,984,319 in 2009. The UK pays approximately 17 per cent. of the common costs of all European Security and Defence Policy missions, including EULEX. For the period from August 2009 to June 2010, the approximate UK contribution to the common costs of EULEX is £22 million. The UK contribution to common costs for UNMIK in 2008-09 were £7,508,472 and are projected to be £3,155,032 in 2009-10.Decisions have not yet been made on embassy operational, FCO discretionary programme or Conflict Prevention Pool allocations for 2010-11 nor have all the relevant multilateral negotiations on mission budgets taken place.This does not represent the total Government budget in Kosovo. For example, DFID spent £3.1 million in Kosovo in the financial year 2008-09 and funded the UK's share of assessed costs for UN agencies, the World Bank and European Commission's Instrument for Pre-Accession.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

499 c326-7W; 297624

Session

2008-09

Subjects

Foreign and Commonwealth Office Kosovo

Contains statistics

Yes

Link

View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk